Free Republic

Local soldier presumed dead after being shot down in Afghanistan July 01, 2005 By Robert Miller STAFF WRITER Courtesy of Reich family Major Steve Reich, shown above with his wife, Jill, on their wedding day March 19, and 16 other Americans are believed dead after their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan Tuesday. When Steve Reich took the mound for Shepaug Valley High School in the 1980s, he stood in perfect control – of his pitches, his mind, his emotions. There was nothing out of place. Everyone who saw him then will swear today he could have pitched for the...

When you do this job for a living, there are athletes that stay with you. The years pass, the old newspaper clips fade, but those stories stay with you. Steve Reich always did. He was a West Point pitcher with a 90 mph fastball and a big, bright smile. He could've walked out of the United States Military Academy for a Top 25 baseball power and someday the Major League Baseball draft, but he never did. "I wanted to see how I stacked up against the best kids," Reich said. "I wanted to see how far I could push myself....

Steve Reich never expressed regret that his promising professional baseball career lasted only two games for a Baltimore Orioles farm team before the Army summoned him back to active duty 10 years ago. "When the Army said they couldn't spare him, that was it," said Gary Fitzherbert, a longtime friend of the Reich family in Washington, Conn. "No argument. Baseball was a big dream, but it always came second place to the service." Major Reich, 34, a West Point graduate, was in the command seat of the Chinook MH-47 helicopter that was shot down on Tuesday in a treacherous mountain...